Bryan Danielson discusses changing feelings toward Vince McMahon

In an interview with Gorilla Position, Bryan Danielson briefly discussed how his feelings toward Vince McMahon have changed in the wake of Janel Grant’s lawsuit.

Danielson has expressed love and admiration for McMahon in the past, writing in a 2021 Players’ Tribune article that he wishes more people could view McMahon in the way that he does. While it’s been tough for Danielson to see everything that has come out since then, he knows that what really matters are the feelings of those who have allegedly been victimized by McMahon.

“First and foremost, I want to say that people who have been hurt are in a way worse position than I am. My empathy goes to them,” Danielson said.

Grant’s lawsuit accuses McMahon of physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. WWE and John Laurinaitis are also named as defendants. McMahon resigned from WWE this January while Laurinaitis was fired from the company in 2022.

Laurinaitis is Danielson’s father-in-law, but Danielson seemingly indicated to Gorilla Position that Laurinaitis and Kathy Colace (the mother of Brie Garcia) are not together anymore.

“But, yeah, there’s not a lot I want to say about it, honestly, other than — because it’s not just the Vince piece, it’s also my father-in-law, maybe ex-father-in-law, as far as that kind of stuff goes,” Danielson said. “It’s just, you know, you think of somebody in some way, and then something happens and it changes. And that’s always hard. But like I said, as hard as that may be for me emotionally, like this emotional thing, it’s way worse for people who have been victimized by people in power.”

Danielson did not want to speak for either Brie or Nikki Garcia in regards to the situation.

“If they want to talk about it, they can talk about it,” Danielson said. “This should be a core tenet of everybody is to not — if somebody is willing to tell you their feelings of something that’s really hard, it’s not your place to tell everybody else. So, yeah, if they want to talk about it, they can. That’s not my jam.”

Gorilla Position’s full conversation with Danielson is available to watch below. The interview was to promote All In, where Danielson will challenge Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship on August 25. If Danielson doesn’t win the match, he will retire from in-ring competition.